- Author: Christian Jordan
The Siskiyou County Prescribed Burn Association (PBA) will host a California Certified Prescribed Fire Burn Boss (CARX) training in Yreka, California from January 13th-17th, 2025. "After having spent since January working with the Siskiyou PBA, one of the limitations I've seen to increasing the pace and scale of private property burning in Siskiyou County is the lack of CARX burn boss capacity," said Patricia Grantham, Coordinator of the Siskiyou PBA. "Having the Fire Marshall's course hosted in Yreka is a tremendous opportunity to address this limitation. We need to fill the seats!"
Below is some additional information regarding the CARX training. Please contact Patricia Grantham with any questions: pgrantham@svrcd.org.
From the Office of the State Fire Marshall's website: The CAL FIRE-Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) State-Certified Prescribed-Fire Burn Boss is for persons seeking Certification to plan and manage prescribed fire on State or private lands. A State-Certified Prescribed-Fire Burn Boss may possess authority to engage in a prescribed burning operation and to enter into the necessary contracts with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The qualifications are documented in the State Certified Prescribed-Fire Burn Boss Certification Training Standards (CTS).
A State-Certified Prescribed-Fire Burn Boss performs prescribed-fire planning, obtains state or local approval and permits, develops and implements a burn plan, monitors fire effects, maintains prescriptive requirements, and conducts an After-Action Review.
From the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force Website: Obtaining the CARX qualification also allows access to the Prescribed Fire Liability Claims Fund, which provides up to $2 million in coverage for prescribed fire projects led by a qualified burn boss or cultural practitioner. (Note: Claims fund project enrollment is also available to those holding a current NWCG RXB1 or RXB2 qualification.)
Prerequisites for the CARX course:
Coursework Requirements
1. IS-100 Introduction to the Incident Command System
2. S-190 Introduction to Wildland Fire Behavior
3. S-130 Firefighter Training
4. S-290 Intermediate Wildland Fire Behavior (classroom only, online courses not accepted)
Firing Requirements
Qualified NWCG/CICCS Firing Boss (FIRB) or both equivalent firing experience and one of the following courses: S-219 Firing Operations, CA-219 Wildland Firefighting – Firing Operations, C-234 Ignition Operations, or S-234 Ignition Operations
Leadership Requirements
S-131 Advanced Firefighter or L-280 Followership to Leadership or Qualified NWCG/CICCS Firefighter Type 1 (FFT1) or Equivalent leadership experience
After successfully attending the CARX course, initiating and completing a task book is required prior to certification.
- Author: Christian Jordan
The Forestry Institute for Teachers (FIT) will be hosting two "FIT-Focus" sessions this Fall, including one in Plumas County. Please see the below message and attached flier for additional details:
- Author: Christian Jordan
Shasta College will host a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Forest Resilience workshop this October. The course has been developed with industry partners and will provide practical, applied experience in the use of GIS to support project management for forest and wildfire resilience. The workshop will take place on four consecutive Saturdays, beginning October 5th. The attached flier includes further details. For additional information or questions, please reach out to Dan Scollon: dscollon@shastacollege.edu.
- Author: Christian Jordan
On August 3rd, 2021, the Antelope Fire reached the Goosenest Adaptive Management Area (GAMA) on the Klamath National Forest in Siskiyou County. For six days, the fire burned through the predominately ponderosa pine and white fir forest, exhibiting mild, moderate, and extreme fire behavior. Fortunately for Pacific Southwest Research Station Scientists, the fire offered a unique opportunity to study the effectiveness of fuel treatments on wildfire behavior and severity.
Prior to the Antelope Fire's arrival, twenty-three study plots at GAMA had received four different fuel treatments: 1) Thin-only (emphasis on pine retention), 2) Thin-only (emphasis on big tree retention), 3) Thin (emphasis on pine retention) plus Prescribed Fire (two broadcast burns, nine years apart), and 4) Fire-only (two broadcast burns nine years apart). Untreated control plots provided a baseline for the study. “I think what's incredible about the Goosenest data set is that because of the number of replicated treatments that we had, and because they were laid out in a randomized experiment before the fire came through, we really had this incredible and to our knowledge unprecedented opportunity [to assess fuel treatment effectiveness],” said Emily Brodie, Forest Monitoring Scientist with CAL FIRE, Former Postdoctoral Scholar at the Pacific Southwest Research Station, and one of the paper's co-authors.
When researchers returned to the site post-fire, they found more than just a black forest. Overall, fuel treatments resulted in lower fire severity across all four metrics examined: tree mortality, average bole char-height, percent crown volume consumed (PCVC), and percent crown volume affected (PCVA). All treatments were found to lower fire severity, with thinning plus prescribed fire being the most effective.
“I was most excited about these areas where the road went through and on one side you had a treatment that had received thinning and burning and the trees were totally green,” said Brodie. “And on the other side, there was a control where no treatment action had occurred. Those trees were completely charred.”
The study also demonstrated that fuel treatments can be effective over a decadal or multi-decadal time period – it had been ten years since prescribed fire and twenty years since mechanical thinning had been implemented at the study plots. Importantly, treatments were still effective under extreme weather conditions.
“In a nutshell, what our study showed is that fuel treatments changed outcomes, even under the most extreme weather conditions,” said Eric Knapp, Research Ecologist at the Pacific Southwest Research Station and one of the paper's co-authors. “Fuels really do matter. When the winds were the strongest and the humidity was super low, only the trees in the treated areas really had a chance. Going forward in a time of increasing fire activity, if we want forests that are resilient to these types of fires, it's going to become increasingly important to keep both the canopy fuels and the ground fuels low and keep them managed.”
For more details and insights on the paper, please refer to the following resources:
Brodie, Emily G.; Knapp, Eric E.; Brooks, Wesley R.; Drury, Stacy A.; Ritchie, Martin W. 2024. Forest thinning and prescribed burning treatments reduce wildfire severity and buffer the impacts of severe fire weather. Fire Ecology. 20(1): 11770. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42408-023-00241-z.
An Interview with Emily Brodie and Eric Knapp: Through The Fire | US Forest Service Research and Development (usda.gov)
- Author: Christian Jordan
UC ANR's Forest Stewardship Workshop Series continues locally this Fall! The Workshop will meet online once a week on Wednesdays from October 9th – December 11th, 2024, and in-person Saturday, November 2nd in Humboldt County. Note that participation in the field day is not required - all are welcome to join the workshop no matter where your forestland or working area is located. Participants who complete the workshop will be eligible for a free site visit with a California Registered Professional Forester.
Please see the attached flier for more information.
